New Police Chief in Moss Point

MOSS POINT --Former police investigator Keith Davis was sworn in as Moss Point's new police chief during a ceremony Monday, May 16, at Pelican Landing Conference Center, according to media reports

Davis, 40, came to Moss Point from the D'Iberville Police Department, where he had been captain of the Criminal Investigations Division. He has 18 years of experience in law enforcement.

Davis replaced former Police Chief Shelia Smallman, who became Moss Point's top officer in 2008. She made history when she became the first female police chief in Moss Point, and only the second female to officially hold the office of police chief within the six counties that make up South Mississippi.

Smallman was dismissed in March after the Moss Point Board of Aldermen expressed a lack of confidence in her leadership of the police department. Deputy Chief Bobby Johnson served as interim chief until Davis was hired.

Reports from The Mississippi Press said that Davis began his law enforcement career with Gulfport Police Department, where he became sergeant during his seven years there. He worked as police chief at the Perkinston Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

He earned a bachelor's degree in justice adminstration from University of Southern Mississippi, and is a graduate of Mississippi Law Enforcement Command College at University of Mississippi. He also is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy.

The Sun Herald reported that Davis has pledged to build trust within the police department and among residents in Moss Point. The Mississippi Press reported that Davis calls himself a "man of faith." He said he has faith in faith in God, in the city's police personnel and city leadership, and faith in his years of police training.

Officer Lee's Death Reaches 8th Year Oct. 17

MOSS POINT -- Sunday, Oct. 17, will mark the anniversary of the death of Police Officer Larry DeWayne Lee, who was 42 years old when he died that Thursday night in 2002.

Officer Lee, who had served 14 years in law enforcement, was killed when his patrol vehicle was hit head-on by a suspect driving a Chevy Blazer as he was being pursued near the high-rise bridge on Mississippi 63.

Officer Lee was thrown 200 feet and died at the scene, according to news reports at the time.

Lee had served with the Moss Point Police Department six years and eight years with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

Assistant Teacher Dies During Wreck in Florida

MOSS POINT -- Assistant teacher Marva Johnson died Friday, Oct. 8, following a vehicle wreck near Jacksonville, Fla.

Johnson, an assistant teacher at Singing River Elementary School in Gautier, was the wife of Deputy Police Chief Bobby Johnson, who traveled to Florida after learning about the morning accident. According to a city official, Marva Johnson had been visiting swith her daughter, Bobbye Jo, since Wednesday.

Details of the wreck were unavailable. Funeral plans are pending upon return of family members to Moss Point. Mayor Aneice Liddell said Friday that the Johnsons have other family members in Jacksonville.

Breaking News: Wife of Deputy Chief Dies

MOSS POINT – City officials learned late this morning that the wife of Deputy Chief Bobby Johnson died following a vehicle wreck in Florida.

Mrs. Johnson, whose first name was unavailable for this report, was in Jacksonville on Friday visiting with her daughter, who also was involved in the vehicle accident but was not hurt, according to Mayor Aneice Liddell. She said the deputy chief wife’s had been in Florida since Wednesday.

Apparently, Mrs. Johnson was reported to have been doing well after the wreck but died later at an area hospital.

Further details about the cause of her death and the accident itself were not known for this report.

Mayor Aneice Liddell said Deputy Chief Johnson was on his way to Jacksonville when he learned that his wife had passed away. She said Johnson and his daughter have other family members who live in Jacksonville.

Johnson's wife was always supportive of her husband, and attended any and every function that involved the deputy chief, the mayor said. "He and his wife did everything together. They were very close."

Liddell said another officer from the Moss Point Police Department probably would travel to Jacksonville to help Johnson make the return trip to the city, but exact plans depend on continuing circumstances surrounding his spouse's death.

"We are waiting to see what his needs are," she said around midday Friday.

Officers Byrd, Gaston Share a Day

                                                            Frederick Gaston III

                                                                                                                  Photo of Byrd unavailable at this time

Two former law enforcement officers who had served in Moss Point and Pascagoula share a day that has its yearly anniversary in late March.

Frederick Gaston III., who was a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department when he was shot to death in 2008, was born March 27, 1959. He was 49 years old. 

On that same date Patrolman Micheal Byrd, a member of the Pascagoula Police Department, lost his life in a motorcycle accident on Chicot Road in 2006. At the time of Byrd's death, Gaston was with the Gulfport Police Department. 

Gaston had served with the Moss Point Police Department since 2007, and was interim police chief from January to mid-summer 2008.

Gaston had only recently become a deputy for the county agency led by Byrd's father, Sheriff Mike Byrd. Gaston was on his way to military training in Virginia when he was killed during a robbery in Gastonia, N.C., on Aug. 2, 2008. 

Byrd was on his way to Singing River Hospital to see a newborn nephew when he swerved to avoid a collision with a vehicle and was thrown off his motorcycle, then tragically run over by a truck. 

The familes of the two men still pay homage to their lives on their shared day -- March 27 -- as well as the differing days of birth. 

Byrd would have turned 30 years old this coming April 11. He was born in 1979.